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Sunday, September 24, 2017

For the first time ever, I have both kids in school! I won't lie, I am really enjoying the kid-free hours I have in the afternoons, four days a week. However, as much as I was looking forward to the kid-free time, I surprised myself by really missed my little buddy, Enna, when I dropped her off at preschool that first day. Parenthood: it is such the conflict of emotions!

I really need to prioritize how I spend those precious, kid-free hours. I have mistakenly scheduled appointments during that time and have been subsequently annoyed that I spent those hours at doctor's offices or the like instead of doing something I enjoy and is rejuvenating. I want to reserve those times for bike riding and sewing projects.

Finn is enjoying school so far. We have had a few snags: The teacher (who isn't new) sent the kids home with a number of homework tasks: math worksheet, 15 minutes of reading, a written reading response, spelling word practice, and math facts review. All together, it added up to about an hour's worth of homework which seemed a bit excessive for second grade. The teacher has since tweaked the requirements so that they are a bit more reasonable. But I am interested, if you have a similarly aged child, how much homework do they have a night?

We also had an incident with our bus driver. Last year, the normal and excellent bus driver retired. There was a substitute driver who finished out the last few months of the school year who was also excellent. This year, we have a different bus driver with a completely different temperament. After the first day there were complaints of yelling and mocking from the bus driver. The bus driver was also routinely late. I was willing to chalk it up to a new route and a new year. However, the other week, I picked Finn up from the bus stop. We were walking across the street when the bus pulls up to us, stops, and the door opens. From her seat, the bus driver starts telling me (yelling since I was not close and she was in the bus) how "naughty" Finn was on the bus. Completely non-plussed by this unexpected complaint, I asked her 1) if she had the right kid and 2) how he was being naughty. She said yes, it was the right kid and that he wasn't staying in his seat and talking too loudly, etc.

So there are many things wrong here. 1) If there was a problem, and I needed to be aware of it, she should have asked me to come up to her seat to talk it over, or called me later. 2) She publicly shamed my child by telling everyone in earshot about his misbehavior. And as she was yelling from the bus, this was a lot of people. 3) She had the wrong child. After discussing the situation extensively with Finn, it turns out he was the middle child of three on a bench. He could not easily get out of his seat. Also, it turns out he was being harassed the whole time by fourth grader (one who was sitting next to him and by the aisle) about the status of his teeth. (A whole other story about how awful and mean kids are.) I am pretty confident that there was another child who was causing trouble and the bus driver misidentified the kid. Not completely surprising as the children all wear the same colors (it is a uniformed school), but also annoying because she has not taken the initiative to learn the children's names, a task that even the temporary substitute from last year managed. And now, my son, has some anxiety about riding the bus this year. Yay. I called and complained, and I hope things go more smoothly from here on out.

(This is my first time dealing with a situation like this, and WHOA.......It hit a lot of my feeling buttons!)

I should also mention that I have already received quite a bit of positive feedback from Finn from his second grade teacher. She has written a few times about how she enjoys having him in class and that he is just so good! This makes my mama heart sing. (And it makes me want to shove this praise in the bus driver's face. "You have the wrong boy! My son is not the type to misbehave on the bus!")

Enna has had a much smoother time starting preschool. She absolutely LOVES going to preschool and is distraught and despairing on those days when she doesn't get to go. Mondays are the worst when Finn gets to go to school, but she does not. I get to hear about the unfairness of it all every. single. week. (o.k. So it has only been a week and a half of her actually going to preschool, but I sense a definite trend here.) I love that she enjoys it so much. The teachers are great and make it a point of sharing what the kids are learning and playing. They have also made a point of talking to me individually about Enna and what she did and worked on that day. Also, as Enna has a nut allergy, the preschool has made the all the classes nut-free. I love that they are so accommodating.

And that is the new school year! Perhaps a bit more of a rocky start than I wanted, but still, very good.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Our second and last camping trip for the summer was Mt. Rainier. Because of our *late* (April) scheduling, We were camping Sunday-Tuesday. I also just picked a random week in August. It turns out that it was the week of the Eclipse! While we were not in the path of complete totality, we were at about 95%.

Mr. F. had purchased safe glasses months before (of course). So, all we needed to do was find a place where we could get a clear view of the sun. We also worried about whether or not the sun would be above the tree line at the time of the eclipse (around 9ish), but that ended up being less of a problem. Just outside the park, there was a large turnoff area for construction vehicles, etc. It also gave us a great view of the sun. So, we parked there, pulled out the folding table and chairs, and got to work making breakfast (pancakes) while we checked periodically the eclipse's progress. Over time, we were joined by ten other cars. (Although they didn't bust out any gear other than eclipse viewers.) It was great fun, and the kids loved it.

I also lucked out on our campsite. When I made reservations, I had limited choices. Most of the better campsites (outer loop, etc) were already taken. I made the best guess based on the camp map. We were talking to friends before our trip however, and they mentioned that the campgrounds in the park were small and right on top of each other. I prepared myself for a less-than-awesome campground. So, imagine my delight when it turns out that our campsite was amazing! The campsite that was closest to us was shut down because of fallen branches, etc. The campsite on the other side was over a small hill and farther removed. We also had a small stream to play in. The downside: no real flat spot to pitch our tent. So, we slept at an incline. However, the kids declared our campsite to be "the best campsite we've ever had!" The other sites were just like my friends described though: small, very close together, and limited privacy (ie not a lot of foliage).

While there we went on a few smallish hikes. First we went to Silver Falls (about a 2 mile loop with the falls in the middle). This was mistakenly done before dinner on our first day. You would think that we were asking the kids to go on a death march with how they were acting. (Specifically the youngest.) It was not flat, like I expected, but had some good rolling climbs and descents. It was a really gorgeous hike if your ears weren't bleeding from all the whining. The next day, we went on a guided tour of the Grove of the Patriarchs. This was another lovely, short hike. However, the kids were traumatized by the previous day's hike. We had to assure them repeatedly that it was much, much shorter. Which begs the question: at what age does hiking with kids become enjoyable? I would love to go on some longer hikes, but I don't think I have the temperament currently for it (if it means I have to listen to whining the whole time.)

We also drove up to both Paradise and Sunrise to see the views of Mt. Rainier and enjoy the wildflowers. For this trip, I was trying to stay really hydrated per doctor's orders. So I was drinking a fair bit. Mr. F. kept joking that I had a goal to pee on every peak since, yup, I had to go to the loo at each of these stops. Goal accomplished!

On our way home, we stopped outside the park at Crystal Mountain to ride the gondola. Although it was a clear day, Mt. Rainier was slightly obscured by smoke. (There was a forest fire in one section of the Cascades.) Also, there was a massive amount of ladybugs at the top of Crystal Mountain which struck me as odd. What are they eating up there?

*I bought a pie iron! I queried my Facebook friends to see if it was worth it. The resounding answer (from those who have one) was yes. We made pudgie pies with peanut butter, marshmallows, and chocolate. (Finn added strawberry jam to his concoction as well.) I quite enjoyed it. Much less messy than s'mores. It would be good to make grilled cheese, etc., but Mr. F and I are limiting our dairy so....*sad face*

Friday, September 15, 2017

I like having the right clothes for the right activity. With all the camping we have done in the past couple of years, I decided that hiking pants are really the way to go: quick drying, wind resistant, dirt resistant, cool for hot days and easy to layer for cold days. I made sure to pick myself up another pair earlier this year so that I have enough pants to cover me for our camping trips when they went on sale.

I have often been challenged on packing the right kind of clothes for the kids on our camping trips. It would be so much simpler if they had hiking pants too. Kid hiking pants aren't the easiest to find. They are also hard to fit my skinny kids and tend to be pricey. Cue this summer's sewing project: hiking pants for kids.

Luckily, there is a well-written, thorough tutorial on how to do this on Oliver & S using a pattern that I already had in the correct sizes. When I read this post initially (when it was first posted), I liked the idea but blew it off as too time-consuming. ( LOL! Excuse me while I laugh at my expense). This summer, however, I decided that it would be a great time to tackle this project. What cinched the deal was making a trip across the water to Seattle and spending the day with a friend visiting a number of the fabric shops. One of the stores we stopped by was Seattle Fabrics, a store which specializes in outdoor fabrics. I found some Supplex there (a type of breathable nylon fabric) that would be perfect for hiking pants, so I bit the bullet and bought the fabric. Now that the fabric was already purchased, I felt compelled to actually make the pants.

My initially reaction was correct. The pants were time consuming. There is a reason that I succeeded in making only two shirts for myself this summer. The rest was spent making my kids hiking pants. I got midway through the first pair and started second guessing myself. "Will my kids even wear these pants that I am spending so much time on?" Luckily, my kids are young enough that they don't fuss too much when I suggest certain clothing for a particular outing. Hopefully, this mean I get some good use out of them. Also, I made them a size longer than they are currently. I am crossing my fingers they last a couple of years. Added length though creates it's own problem. I knew from experience that folding up pant hems doesn't work very well--they just come unfolded. Having an elastic cuff works, but I wasn't sure I wanted the elastic to be a permanent feature. I decided to put a drawstring in the pant hem. I made a buttonhole in the cuff so that I could thread a piece of twill tape through. I then added a toggle. I could then cinch or un-cinch the pants hems as needed. When the kids are tall enough, I can remove the drawstring altogether if I like. That is the only difference I made to the linked tutorial.

In the end? I am happy that I made them. I get the biggest high out of seeing my kids in mama-made clothes. Especially ones that are so professional looking as these pants. (The complement is for the excellent pattern and tutorial and not my sewing ability!) I was also proud of myself for finishing them before our last camping trip of the summer. (To be blogged about next!) I am throwing in a picture of the pants in the wild for you to see.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

I did some selfish sewing for myself this summer, though not enough. (Seriously, I had a lot of plans, but then, like every summer, my energy tanked.)

Supposedly, according to a previous post, I started the muslin (i.e. test garment) of the Cappuccino Tunic in April, but finished it in July. (And then wrote about it in August.) That sounds about right. I hear about people whipping up clothes in mere hours, but that is not my life. I seem to average about one garment a season at this stage of my life. I am trying to learn acceptance. *me taking a meditative pose.* Ohmmm.

The muslin of this top gave me some problems, to put it mildly. (And then I have to hysterically laugh at the fact that this is a beginning pattern, and Oh my gosh! will I ever get a handle on this sewing thing already!) Initially, I made the wrong size. I mixed up the sizing chart with the finished measurements chart--a complete rookie mistake. Do you know what happens when you do that? You get a very snug shirt. Indecently snug. I am amazed that I was even able to even get it on. The next 2-3 muslins where then made to get a decent fit. Notice I say decent, not perfect. I still have some foldage over the bust that I think shouldn't really be there, but it is So. Much. Better.

The Adjustment List:

3/4" whole broad-back adjustment

back darts (3/4" and 3 1/2" long) to accommodate the extra fabric due to the above adj.

a 3/8" folded horizontal wedge taken from upper bust and sleeve*

1/2" sloping shoulder adjustment

3/8" upper rounded back adjustment*

* indicates a "new to me" adjustment

By the time I finished with all of these, I felt like I had created a frankenpattern. However, I feel like most of these are adjustments are ones I will routinely make again. The horizontal wedge adjustment was a huge breakthrough for me since I have noticed these folds over the bust in other tops and I had no idea what caused it. I think that I have a shorter upper bust (shoulders to bust) than the average person which causes folds in the fabric there. Now I know how to fix that. Yay! Also, The upper rounded back adjustment fixes a funky back fold that I get right by the shoulders. I had no idea how to fix it before and now I do!

I am writing about my adjustments for transparency. I used to think that a person sewed a straight pattern and it either fitted them or it didn't. Not every sewist will talk about the fitting adjustments they made to obtain that final, picture-perfect garment. And as a new sewist, it can be so frustrating when you make a garment, and it doesn't look the way you have seen it on other people.

For Fabric, the pattern calls for something rather drapey. The models are wearing either silk or rayon. I was looking for something with more of a homespun vibe, but still needed something with some drape. I went with a yarn-dyed chambray--which is normally found in a "denim" hue but doesn't need to be. I was glad to find it in this magenta. It has cross threads of a dark blue. The second shirt was a lightweight linen (3 oz). This was unbelievably shifty. I have no idea if I was able to cut it on grain or not. So difficult. However, I think it turned out o.k. Both fabrics were found at Fabric.com. It is fun to see in the pictures how the different fabrics affect fit.

I want to try this top again in a stable knit like an interlock or ponte, and if it works, make a dress version in that fabric. I think that would be cute. We will see.

This is my, "the kids are playing near the camera, and I am afraid they are going to knock it over" face.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

This year's Fourth of July was sunny and bright! We kept it super low key since we were recovering (still) from our camping trip, and all of us were either succumbing to or getting over a nasty chest cold. (Guess who still has it? Winner winner, chicken dinner!) We started festivities by washing our cars (using cheap and willing child labor, including the neighbor child) and then ended the day with some mild fireworks. (No big and loud sounds for this crowd.) Sandwiched in-between was a dinner consisting of hot dogs, potato chips, raw veggies with hummus, fruit salad, and berry shortcake for dessert.

The local fireworks was the day before on the third, and didn't start until 9:20--the time it actually gets dark here. Which is even later (obviously given different latitudes) than in Maryland. It made me wonder what time they start the festivities in places like Alaska. Do they just give up on the idea of it being completely dark? Of course, we had our neighbor's fireworks to listen to on the following days. It was......not awesome. The Fourth of July really is not one of my favorite holidays. I am really quite a curmudgeon. I am o.k. with that. (*waves fists at all the young hooligans*)

Monday, July 10, 2017

Well, it took a couple of years, but Finn has finally outgrown the shorts that I made him two summers ago. Actually, in length and waist, he is still fine, but I felt the rise was too short for another summer. Instead, I took those same shorts, cut off an inch and a half, and hemmed them for Enna. Summer shorts for her? Done. Finn, however, needed something new.

Last year, I supplemented his homemade shorts with these from Target:

They were perfect! We got a size smaller than his age so that they would fit his waist, and they were still o.k. in length. This year, they are getting a bit shorter, but not unseemly so. However, I couldn't find these same shorts this year (so as to get more), and I didn't like the look of what I saw available online via Target. All this to say: I needed to sew more shorts.

I was going to use the same pattern as I used two years ago, the sketchbook short pattern. However, I don't have it in the larger (5-12) size range, only the younger range. I have learned in the past year or so that although my kids' girth measurements (i.e. waist and chest), might put them in a really young size, you don't want to do more the a two size difference between a waist/chest measurement and a height measurement since the proportions start looking really off. This meant that although Finn's waist measurements might put him in the smaller pattern size, size 5 was as small as I should go since I needed the length of the pattern to be a size 7/8. Clear as mud? Anyway, I thought about buying that pattern in the larger size, but decided that I would take the art museum trouser pattern (which I did have in the right size) and make them into shorts.

This is a great basic pant pattern. The "design feature" of this pattern is the welt back pockets, which I didn't bother with since I wanted a basic summer short with pockets. I also opted not to do the flat front since Finn has expressed a preference of comfort for an all-around elastic waist. Other besides that, I made it like the pattern directed. I estimated (generously) an inseam that would approximate a short length, making sure that I had it long enough. I hemmed them so that they hit at mid-knee.

The tricky part was coming up with a suitable fabric. I really liked the fabric of the Target shorts. I posted a picture of the shorts on a couple of different Facebook sewing groups to get input on what exactly that type of fabric was called. The consensus was poplin. However, it was not trivial to find poplin that would be substantial enough for shorts. (It is most often used as shirting). Robert Kaufman makes a "Malibu Poplin" that is 5.3 ounces. This is what I used, and it has been awesome--substantial enough for shorts but lightweight enough for summer. (I had also checked out some lightweight/midweight twill, but those had a dressier look.)

The second set of shorts I made for Finn were using the Parachute Pant pattern. I had some leftover sweatshirt fleece from previously made pants. I went back and forth on whether the sweatshirt fleece was too warm for shorts. It is a pretty lightweight sweatshirt fleece. My mind has yet to fully adjust to PNW summers. I still think that summers bring a lot of heat and humidity--in which case sweatshirt fleece, regardless of how lightweight, is just a poor choice. However, with our low-humidity 70 degree days, the sweatshirt fleece is just fine.

I drafted pockets using the tutorial online. However, I kind of wish I had pushed harder and left them off. I don't think they hit at a good spot to be actually used, I made the opening a bit too big (I used the Art Museum pockets as a guide), and they don't lie nice and flat--they get caught on the hands and come partly out of the pockets. All in all, it makes me a bit twitchy, but Finn isn't bothered by any of this, and wears them happily.

Faint white marks are just chalk markings to indicate pockets. The picture was taken before they had been washed and these markings removed.

All, in all. I am happy with the shorts. What makes me more happy is to see my kids preferring them over the store-bought shorts. It makes my heart sing to see my kids in well-fitting, home-made clothes.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Alternative working title: In which the bathroom gods frowned upon us.

We went back-to-back camping in June, which was a bit unplanned.

It turns out that if you want a weekend camping spot in Washington state during the summer months, you have to reserve in December. When I looked in April and May, all the weekend slots were taken, and I had to settle for a Sunday-Tuesday booking. Even that was not enough for a Lopez Island campsite during the month of July. Instead, I had to settle for a late June spot. After I reserved our campsite, I found out that the Father/Son campout for church was the Friday before our camping trip. And then, because of ward feedback, they changed it to a ward campout vs just an exclusive Father/Son thing. I would have been happy to skip it, but Finn had been looking forward to that particular camping trip all year. So, we made life extra crazy by camping a night, coming back home for a day, and then setting off for another camping trip.

Luckily, the church camp is not too far away from us in Belfair, WA. It is charmingly situated away in the woods and next to a lovely lake. They have boats, canoes, life jackets, paddles, etc. all accessible to camp patrons. There are also playgrounds and open fields. Altogether, it is a nice setup. My one main problem, which could be a future deal breaker, is that they only have pit toilets for *most* of the campsites. I say *most* because there are actually some rather nice bathroom facilities, but the camp administrators are rather rudely authoritarian about who can actually use them. Only those people staying in a particular building may actually use the nice toilets/showers, the rest of the campers have to use pit toilets. Look, I get that there are places where there are only pit toilets (or even no toilets!), but the payoff of those particular campgrounds is that they are remote/limited use. You change your mindset: you are there to embrace nature and to become one with it. Those are great and certainly have their place. However, I am not at this stage of life going to go car camping with my family at a place that doesn't have flush toilets and a sink. No bueno. And come on, a church campground can take the effort to have flush toilets for it's patrons.

The ward designated a group campsite, where people could mingle and enjoy a campfire and have breakfast in the morning. However, we saw very little of it since 1) our kids where *begging* for bedtime at 8pm and 2) we, for well documented reasons, have to fend for ourselves food-wise. We did stop by in the morning to chat while our kids clustered around us and refused to play with the other kids. (This did change when we were actually packing up the site to leave of course.) The commonly asked question was, "so how did you sleep?" To which I replied, "as good as we normally do." Which is to say--horribly. One person then said, "and yet, you still keep on camping...." Which implies that we are a bit crazy or masochistic. I won't argue with that conclusion. I guess some kids/parents sleep great when camping. We do not. Our kids have yet to master the trick of staying in their sleeping bags. We, instead, spend the majority of the night getting kicked in various places and trying to keep the kids from freezing to death by throwing sleeping bags-turned blankets-over them.

Don't worry, they didn't stay in those bags for longer longer than the first few hours. Also, we gave them melatonin so that they would sleep when it was that light out.

I keep playing with the idea of longer camping trips, so that we could explore areas a bit farther from home. But until we get better sleep, two nights is our max.

What we ate:

I tried to keep it simple since it was just going to be for a night.

Dinner:Mexican style crockpot chicken cooked earlier in the week over tortilla chips and topped with lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Veggies and hummus as a side. No dessert.

We drove back on Saturday, swapped out clothing, loaded up our cooler with the next few days' worth of food, and headed out for our second camping trip on Sunday.

Minimalist campers we will never be.

After dealing with a less than ideal cooler situation for the past few years, I finally bit the bullet and ordered two new coolers: one large hard cooler and a smaller soft-sided cooler. Up to this point, we had been using our plug-in cooler as our main cooler. A few problems with this: it was too small for our camping needs, and it was not designed to hold ice/get wet. The plug-in cooler is awesome for car trips and hotel visits where you can plug it in and have it act like a refrigerator. It is not awesome for car camping. Also, our soft-sided cooler was old and didn't keep things cool for very long. After a lot of research and hemming and hawing and justification, I decided on this hard-sided cooler and this soft-sided cooler. So far, the angels (and me) are singing their praises.

Also, planning for this Lopez Island camping trip highlighted Mr. F.'s and my personality differences. I am a big picture sort of gal (N in Myer-Briggs speak). For example, I researched great camping spots, saw that Lopez Island would be a great place and someplace we could bike, and went about reserving a campground. It was only days before the trip that I started looking into how we would get there. It turns out that we had to take two different ferries (I was expecting only one), and that the scheduling of the ferries were such that we could only get to the island at 6pm at the earliest. Color me seriously bummed. The trip as I planned it had us spending two days traveling with one full day left to explore the island. When I explained this to Mr. F., he was all, "Didn't you see this coming?" Turns out, he more or less expected this outcome. If he were the one planning, he would most likely check travel details before making the reservations to see if the plan was even feasible. He is all about the details. (S in Myer-Briggs).

Live and learn. We will not be heading back to the San Juans until we can handle more than two nights. Otherwise, the travel time doesn't make it worth it. That being said, We really enjoyed the camping trip.

Oh, expect for the small detail that the main bathroom for the campsite--the one with the flush toilets and sinks--was closed for renovation. Why they didn't plan renovations for the winter when there wasn't so many campers, I have no idea. Instead, they had a slew of port-a-potties that were all rank and filled to capacity. (Dude, if you are going to do renovations to the toilets of a popular campground? Make sure you keep on top of the pit toilet disposal!) The toilet situation and the fact that I completely miscalculated the travel time, made me think that this camping trip was for the dogs. Luckily, there was a second set of flush toilets in they day-use portion of the campground which was about as far of a hike as the port-a-potties. Bonus, they were flying under cover of most of the campers so they weren't very crowded. That find seriously saved the trip for me.

We spent our day on Lopez enjoying the campground (which was quite lovely with well-spaced camping spots with lots of privacy), lining up pinecones(?) while parents cooked, hiking to Shark Reef Sanctuary (very cool), and taking a family bike ride around the northern part of the island.

This is what I get when I ask for a nice picture with the kids. Check out the version with their dad on Flickr--perfectly respectable.

Side note: I had heard that Lopez was great for biking since it was relatively flat. This made me excited and is one of the reasons why I picked this camping location--I am always looking for places where we can go on a nice family bike ride. However, I seriously want to know what they mean by "relatively," because dude, our ride was not flat. I guess relative to the other islands, it is one of the flatter ones. But there were some not trivial inclines, and they were at pretty regular intervals. Mr. F. and I were huffing and puffing after our ten mile ride. It was not helped by the fact that we were hauling our children either.